Burqa-clad Taliban men storm Pakistan hostel, kill 12

Three burqa-clad Taliban militants yesterday stormed an agriculture training institute in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar and opened indiscriminate fire, killing at least 12 people, half of them students, before being shot dead by security forces.

Volunteers carry an injured student

The heavily armed militants, who arrived in an auto rickshaw, attacked the students' hostel of the Directorate of Agriculture Extension on the University Road in the city. The institute was closed for the Eid-e-Milad holiday, but about 70 students were present in the hostel. The militants stormed the building by firing automatic weapons, creating panic, officials said.

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack. Police chief of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province Salahuddin Mehsud said 12 people including six students, a security guard and five civilians, were killed and 32 others injured in the attack.

A Pakistani policeman looks at a blood-stained floor of the institute. Pics/AFP

He said security forces killed three terrorists after a gunfight, which lasted for an hour. Police are trying to ascertain the identity of a dead person. A huge cache of arms, including three unexploded suicide vests, 20 hand grenades, Klashnikovs has been recovered from the possession of terrorists.

120Estimated no. of students who live in the hostel

70Estimated no. of students present at the time of attack

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